Inside a Creepy Global Body Parts Business by GinoBiffaroni

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Inside a Creepy Global Body Parts Business

POSTED BY: GINOBIFFARONI
UPDATED: Monday, August 31, 2009 13:45
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Sunday, August 30, 2009 5:25 AM

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,645375,00.html

42.90 Euros Per Arm
Inside a Creepy Global Body Parts Business

By Martina Keller and Markus Grill

The German company Tutogen's business in body parts is as secretive as it is lucrative. It extracts bones from corpses in Ukraine to manufacture medical products, as part of a global market worth billions that is centered in the United States.

Anatoly Korzhak, a pensioner and former engineer, died in Kiev on August 5, 2004. His body was picked up at 2 a.m. and taken to the forensic medicine institute in the Ukrainian capital. That same night, Korzhak's daughter, Lena Krat, received a telephone call and was asked to come to the institute immediately in the morning, where she was told she would receive further information.

It was the first time Krat was confronted with the death of a close relative. "I was so upset that I couldn't think clearly," she recalls. When she arrived at the institute in the morning, a man there said something to her about skin transplants. He was an employee of a Ukrainian company that works hand-in-hand with forensic medicine experts. She said to the man: "Leave me alone. I don't understand what you're talking about, and I don't want to listen to you."

But the employee was persistent and eventually gave her a form to sign. He told her that if she consented to skin removal, she would be helping pediatric burn victims who needed transplants. Krat signed the form. "It was as if I had been hypnotized," she says.

But now Krat, a mother of two young girls, has learned from SPIEGEL that the Ukrainian company in question sends the body parts to a German company, Tutogen Medical GmbH, which in turn apparently supplies large numbers of such parts to the American tissue market.

In addition to strips of skin, tendons, bones and cartilage are removed from the bodies. "This shocks me," says Krat. "If I had known that so much is cut out, I would never have given my consent."

A Lucrative Industry

The incident in the Ukrainian capital is part of the secretive daily routine of a little-known but highly lucrative branch of the medical industry, in which companies use corpses to make medical spare parts. In doing so, they reuse almost everything the human body has to offer: bones, cartilage, tendons, muscle fascia, skin, corneas, pericardial sacs and heart valves. In the jargon of the profession, all of this is referred to as tissue.

Bones and tendons, the parts that interest Tutogen the most, are subjected to complex processing. The company degreases and cleans bones, cuts, saws or mills them into the desired shapes, then sterilizes, packages and sells the finished product in more than 40 countries around the world. With a prescription, it is even possible to order Tutogen's products through online pharmacies.

IMAGE GALLERY

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6 Photos
Photo Gallery: Tutogen's Global Business in Body Parts

The market for tissue products is still small in Germany. When it comes to bones, for example, experts estimate that only about 30,000 transplants a year are used in hospitals nationwide, mainly for use in bone reconstruction for hip surgery and in spinal column surgery.

It's a completely different story in the United States. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, more than a million bone parts are used in transplants every year. In no other country is it possible to make so much money with body parts. If a body were disassembled into its individual parts, then processed and sold, the total proceeds could amount to $250,000 (€176,000). For a single corpse! The US tissue industry generates total revenues of about $1 billion a year, says journalist Martina Keller, a co-author of this article and the author of the German book, "Cannibalized: The Human Corpse as a Resource."

Legal and Ethical Questions

This raises the question of just how legal the process of obtaining raw materials is. And are bone products made from corpses even medically necessary? According to Klaus-Peter Günther, president of the German Society of Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery, they are often "not the first choice" in operations. "For us, the gold standard is still tissue taken directly from the patient in question."

Alternatives are only an option, says Günther, when the material from the patient's body is insufficient. Those alternatives include animal bones and artificial replacement parts made of ceramic material, for example -- or human donor bones.

Many hospitals collect and reuse bone fragments removed from patients who have received artificial hips. "For this reason," says Günther, "we have not had to resort to dead donors so far."

In the United States, doctors have far fewer qualms about using body parts from corpses than their German counterparts -- in such areas as spinal surgery, sports injuries and cosmetic surgery. For instance, doctors used pulverized skin particles to enhance lips and smooth out wrinkles.

Should corpses be butchered to make cosmetic procedures possible? Ingrid Schneider is decidedly opposed to the practice. For the past 15 years the Hamburg political scientist, a former member of the Investigative Commission on Law and Ethics in Modern Medicine in the German parliament, has been involved in the subject of recycling body substances. Schneider argues that the body is not a source of raw materials that can be sold at will. Given such concerns, it is not surprising that many people are deeply opposed to allowing the body of a family member to be reused, even for medical purposes.

Even if it is unrealistic to expect that all commercialization of the body could be ruled out in modern medicine, says Schneider, it is important to set boundaries. For that reason, she insists that human tissue ought to be used sparingly -- that is, only when such use is medically necessary and clearly superior to other forms of treatment.

The conviction that the body is much more than an object has also shaped the policies of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Parliament and the European Council, the EU's body representing the leaders and ministers of the 27-member bloc. All of these bodies condemn the practice of trading in human body parts to turn a profit.

In Germany, the country's organ transplant act regulates the removal of tissue. Only those who have consented to organ and tissue harvesting are considered as donors. If a person dies and is not already a donor, his or her closest relatives can consent to donation. Paragraph 17 of the transplant act explicitly states: "Trading in organs or tissue intended for use in the medical treatment of others is prohibited." Physicians who remove tissue can only be paid suitable compensation for their efforts. The law calls for prison sentences of up to five years for violation of the trading prohibition.

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 6:50 AM

BYTEMITE

Well, that Ukrainian company goes about it is kind of a shady way, because it doesn't sound like they have a donor system established over there.

But in places where a donor system is established, when a person indicates that they want to be an organ donor, what difference does it make if it's internal organs versus skin, bones, and tendons?

Perhaps it is rather ghoulish sounding depending on how the topic is presented, and humans do have a deep seated reaction to the idea of corpses (particularly of loved ones) being mutilated stemming from an even deeper more primitive awe and fear of death. But if both donor and family agree to tissues of the donor being harvested, and understand the extent of the tissues and how they will be used, I don't really understand the problem.

But then, I don't believe there will be a judgement day, when the dead rise from the grave and therefore might need skin, bones, organs and etc., so your mileage may vary.

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 1:54 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

I see the point of the article as being that the German company is buying these organs in the Ukraine in order to sell them in the United States as being a kind of a end run around US and German laws...

If the donor systems you are talking about were very functional....

why buy organs in the Ukraine?

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 2:43 PM

FREMDFIRMA

I'd mention another countries nefarious dealings in that trade, but it would send PN all berserk on us, which gives you the clue as to which one it is.

You do the homework on it though, you'll be downright appalled.

That said, comes to it, my beliefs consider a body, once the Ka has fled, just an object, might as well get some use of the parts - but others may not and if one wants respect of their own beliefs, they must offer as much in return.

Although one thing I did go out of my way for, when it became clear the leg had to come off, was to make very sure that all the correct forms were in place so that they could use the parts, as I heard it, the achilles tendon came in quite handy for an accident victim later that very day, and more power to em, cause it damn sure wasn't doin ME any good.

I really do hope we get our shit together on cloned blood and organs however, cause that'd skip over our current admittedly primitive methods here.

-F

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 4:45 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

Hmmmmm could it be

"Several Palestinians in the West Bank have called for an international inquiry into a Swedish newspaper report that suggests members of the Israeli army stole body organs from Palestinians."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/08/200982510415994815.ht
ml

everyone has their own beliefs, it is those who do not respect the beliefs of others that are the problem

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 5:12 PM

CHRISISALL

Coma?

The laughing Chrisisall

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 6:12 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Coma?

The laughing Chrisisall

Coma ?

A man's wife had been in a coma in hospital for some time. As part of her continued care, her sheets were changed often and she was given sponge baths by a nurse.

During one of the sponge baths, the nurse noticed the wife reacted slightly when her private parts were washed.

The nurse spoke to the husband and explained that she had an unconventional idea that might bring his wife out of the coma. She explained the reaction and suggested that the husband should try oral sex with his wife.

He quickly decided to give it a try, and shut the door for some privacy. After a few minutes, the alarms on the life support equipment began to sound. The nurse rushed into the room and was shocked to find that wife was dead!

"What happened!" screamed the nurse.

"I don't know," said the husband. "She must have choked!"

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Monday, August 31, 2009 12:10 PM

DREAMTROVE

frem.

lol.

I'm actually surprised he hasn't already. That story was in the news recently twice already, once in unsaid country and once in unsaid population in this country

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Monday, August 31, 2009 1:02 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

The US has an poorly regulated and very shady body-parts business. It's not just third-world countries that have this going on. Alistair Cook - who died of cancer that had metastisized to his bones - had his bones stolen from his body and sold to body-parts businesses (this happened in the US). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4552742.stm

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/bodyparts/story/479906
.html
"This is an industry anybody can get into, and there are bodies out there that are not being watched. We would expect our federal government to do more."

The only requirement to harvest tissues destined for transplant is to fill out and submit an FDA registration form, which takes about five minutes online. A registration letter comes in the mail in about eight weeks, and there are no federal inspections for two years.

"The industry doesn't have clear regulations, that's certain," said Michael Rulison, president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Triangle, part of the national group.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13208662/
A three-month investigation by The Associated Press found problems ranging from inadequate testing for potentially deadly germs to lack of a system for tracking tissues as they travel from donor to recipient.

At every step — from funeral homes, where the journey often begins, to hospitals and doctors’ offices, where it ends with patients receiving the eyes, bones, skin and other parts of the dead — poor oversight invites abuse and creates danger.

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Silence is consent.

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Monday, August 31, 2009 1:29 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Though I have to say, this "42.90 Euros Per Arm" gives more precise meaning to the phrase "it cost an arm and a leg ".

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Monday, August 31, 2009 1:45 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

Perhaps it should work like reverse insurance....

You sign an organ card and get a check, after all if someone is going to make money off your charitable act why shouldn't you?

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

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